Santo Domingo

No reviews yetCity Nacional, Dominican Republic

Alcazar de Colon, Santo Domingo, Nacional, Dominican Republic

Fortaleza Ozama, Santo Domingo, Nacional, Dominican Republic

Calle El Conde, Santo Domingo, Nacional, Dominican Republic

About Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo is where the European story of the Americas began. Founded by Bartholomew Columbus in the 1490s and moved to the west bank of the Ozama River in 1502, it holds the oldest cathedral, fortress and paved street in the New World, gathered in a Colonial Zone that UNESCO listed in 1990.

Today the Dominican capital is a big, energetic Caribbean metropolis of several million people, loud with merengue and bachata, busy with traffic and full of life on its plazas. Within a few blocks of the Colonial Zone you can walk from the coral-stone Alcázar de Colón to lively Calle El Conde and on to the Malecón, the seafront avenue where crowds gather on warm evenings. Further west lie the city's museums, the national botanical garden and the green cliffs of Mirador Sur.

Las Américas International Airport lies east of the city, and buses and cars reach Punta Cana, Samaná and the north coast. Visit in the drier winter months, when the trade winds keep the heat in check.

Best seasonDecember-April

Ideal stay2-3 days

ArrivingLas Américas International Airport; buses from across the Dominican Republic

12 Things You Shouldn't Miss in Santo Domingo

Neighborhoods 3

Zona Colonial Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo's Colonial Zone is the oldest permanent European settlement in the Americas and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1...

Calle El Conde

The main pedestrian street of the Colonial Zone runs from Parque Colón to the Puerta del Conde, the gateway where Dominican indepe...

Malecon de Santo Domingo

Officially named Avenida George Washington, the Malecón follows the Caribbean shore west from the Colonial Zone, with a broad seaw...

Temples and Shrines 1

Catedral Primada de America

Begun in 1514 and completed around 1540, the Cathedral of Santa María la Menor is the oldest cathedral in the Americas, mixing Got...

History 4

Alcazar de Colon

Built in the early sixteenth century for Diego Columbus, son of Christopher and governor of the colony, this coral-stone palace ov...

Fortaleza Ozama

Built in the early 1500s to guard the mouth of the Ozama River, this is the oldest European military fortress in the Americas. Its...

Panteon de la Patria

Housed in an eighteenth-century Jesuit church on Calle Las Damas, the National Pantheon holds the remains of many of the country's...

Ruinas del Monasterio de San Francisco

The roofless walls of the Franciscan monastery, begun in the early sixteenth century and among the first in the Americas, stand on...

Museums 2

Museo de las Casas Reales

In a sixteenth-century building that housed the Royal Audiencia, the first high court of the Americas, this museum covers the colo...

Museo del Hombre Dominicano

Part of the Plaza de la Cultura complex, this museum traces Dominican identity through its roots: an outstanding collection of Taí...

Parks 2

Jardin Botanico Nacional Santo Domingo

The National Botanical Garden, named after the botanist Rafael Moscoso, covers a large area in the north of the city with forests,...

Parque Mirador Sur

Stretching along limestone cliffs in the south-west of the city, Mirador Sur is a long green park of trees, lawns and caves, with...

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Photo credits

Photo: Jorge Brazil from Brazil, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Photo: Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: -wuppertaler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Photo: Osplace, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo: Bgabel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo: Dr. Thomas Liptak, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Thetelly, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Mariordo (Mario Durán & German Valverde), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: -wuppertaler, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Photo: Phyrexian, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Caballero1967, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Heptazane at English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo: Heptazane (talk), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo: AFI, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Photo: Daniel Lobo, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0